Barack Obama Speech after winning Iowa Caucus
He looks like a 17 yo kid you'd see on a HS basketball court! Admittedly, Obama wasn't my candidate. I don't think he's shown enough leadership and has been too careful and calculating on many issues and therefore I question his strength to stand up against many of the powerful forces I want a leader to stand up to in our country. I think the dangers facing us from within are more threatening than the dangers we face from an outside force (corporate power, media conglomeration, partisanship, election fraud, etc.) BUT Obama IS a very a powerful orator. I found this moment in our history and his speech to be very moving. I can't deny that I am pleased that someone of the same racial makeup as my children was selected by the white state of Iowa. Makes me think it is possible for my kids to be judged by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin.
Now, coming out of Iowa - watch the spin in the press. The press doesn't like Hillary, the press doesn't like Edwards. The powers that be don't like Edwards and Huckabee because of their populist stances. Will be interesting to watch how this unfolds.
3 comments:
I found myself today thinking of Mikhail Gorbachev. As far as I am concerned this man was a true hero of the late 20th century (far more responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union than Ronald Reagan).
One of his greatest facets was his determination to change his society for the better - even at his own expense. That takes a great person.
I have felt similarly about Obama to what you have voiced here. But I have come to realize in just the past few days that just maybe we're seeing something greater than any of us hard lefters had hoped for. Just maybe we're seeing the beginnings of a truly new emergence of freedom. And just maybe that new freedom has more to do with a message of hope than it has to do with a detailed reckoning of the evils of the NeoCons' crimes. And just maybe we're becoming the ones who are superfluous.
I'm not sure. But one thing I am sure of: if that is what is happening, I damn sure want to have the good grace to let my mightily held indignations go by the wayside as I watch the new hope ride into town.
I didn't mean to sound like I wanted revenge against the neo-cons - I just want a strong leader. Strong enough to reverse course. I believe that our country would be in capable hands if Obama, Hillary or Edwards won. They would all be good stewards and I will support whoever gets the nomination. Oh, I like Obama - I just think he's too green - BUT I trust him. As I heard it phrased tonight "Obama is no longer a candidate - he's a movement." It is exciting to contemplate people believing again - like in the days of RFK. I think Obama brings that out in people. I think Hillary and the Repubs are so much a part of the problem that they grossly misjudged the mood of the country. NH seems to be ready to show the world that Iowa was not a fluke.
Actually I'm not so sure I stated the above all that well. I went on to blog about it in more detail on my own blog later last night.
What it really comes down to is that I think just maybe that those of us who have been fighting in one way or another against the neocon establishment may just end up as dinosaurs once good and truth and the true American way have won. I don't mean we were or are wrong to fight. I just mean that somebody of vision - if that person can truly inspire the American people once again to greatness (in all the right ways that used to make the world look up to us) - may make fighting (at least on a daily basis) unnecessary.
I know that sounds like something of dreams. And my position has primarily been one of wanting strength to fight against facism. And in that light I have been afraid that Obama may be too naive and idealistic. But I'm just beginning to wonder if maybe I was wrong about that.
I don't know if I made myself clearer or not; I have a horrible habbit of digging my holes deeper as I try to climb out of them.
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